- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (Aug 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345447026
- ISBN-13: 978-0345447029
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.3 x 3.6 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,586,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A decade ago there were only two charter schools in the United States. Today there are more than 2,400, serving more than half a million students. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many of the regulations that have long governed public education. Supporters include many of the country’s most prominent educators and politicians, among them President George W. Bush, who hope charter schools will reshape education, especially where it proves most challenging—in the inner city. The fact that most charter schools promise smaller classes and more parental involvement makes them immensely appealing to the nation’s most disadvantaged families. Charter school detractors, on the other hand, fear that these alternative schools will irredeemably ruin public education, drawing away the talented students and the most involved parents.
Clearly the stakes are high. But few Americans understand what a charter school really is—or what is involved in trying to create, attend, and teach in one. Written by a renowned journalist and education writer, and a former inner-city school teacher himself, Hard Lessons is the first book to capture the human drama of the entire experience. For three years, Jonathan Schorr was allowed complete access to the students, teachers, and parents of the E.C. Reems Academy in Oakland, California, making him uniquely qualified to tell their fascinating story. But would the new school succeed in effectively teaching children from urban neighborhoods where success is rare? Would it become a whole new bureaucracy or sabotage itself from within? The answers are found in the moving stories of some deeply involved yet very different individuals.
Among them, there is Nazim Casey, Jr.—rescued from his crack-addicted parents, he’s the last-chance child who will put inner-city charters to their ultimate test; William Stewart—a father whose fury at his daughter’s failed public school propels him into activism; Eugene Ruffin—the entrepreneur who helped introduce the personal computer to America, then collaborated with Wal-Mart heir John Walton to “invest” in education; and Valentin Del Rio—a young teacher whose idealism turns to exhaustion and the search for a punctual paycheck.
Through successes and setbacks, Hard Lessons reveals just how difficult it is, even with the best of intentions, to offer a quality education to every child in America. The story of E.C. Reems Academy offers invaluable lessons for anyone interested in America’s most pressing domestic concern. At once harrowing and hopeful, and in the finest tradition of modern nonfiction, Hard Lessons is one of the most important books to come along in decades.
Clearly the stakes are high. But few Americans understand what a charter school really is—or what is involved in trying to create, attend, and teach in one. Written by a renowned journalist and education writer, and a former inner-city school teacher himself, Hard Lessons is the first book to capture the human drama of the entire experience. For three years, Jonathan Schorr was allowed complete access to the students, teachers, and parents of the E.C. Reems Academy in Oakland, California, making him uniquely qualified to tell their fascinating story. But would the new school succeed in effectively teaching children from urban neighborhoods where success is rare? Would it become a whole new bureaucracy or sabotage itself from within? The answers are found in the moving stories of some deeply involved yet very different individuals.
Among them, there is Nazim Casey, Jr.—rescued from his crack-addicted parents, he’s the last-chance child who will put inner-city charters to their ultimate test; William Stewart—a father whose fury at his daughter’s failed public school propels him into activism; Eugene Ruffin—the entrepreneur who helped introduce the personal computer to America, then collaborated with Wal-Mart heir John Walton to “invest” in education; and Valentin Del Rio—a young teacher whose idealism turns to exhaustion and the search for a punctual paycheck.
Through successes and setbacks, Hard Lessons reveals just how difficult it is, even with the best of intentions, to offer a quality education to every child in America. The story of E.C. Reems Academy offers invaluable lessons for anyone interested in America’s most pressing domestic concern. At once harrowing and hopeful, and in the finest tradition of modern nonfiction, Hard Lessons is one of the most important books to come along in decades.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Great Education Story With Lessons Beyond Education
28 Oct 2009
Format:Hardcover
I always like reading about industries unfamiliar to me firsthand because success and obstacles have common threads across industries, and looking from the outside in often gives a perspective that is tough to see when you're waist deep in immediate issues. Jonathan Schorr's Hard Lessons is a play-by-play of Oakland's struggle to open charter schools in the inner city. Told from multiple points of view -- teacher, student, parent, administration -- it's a fascinating story but also a good coaching book. Some lessons from Hard Lessons:
Progress can take a while. Schorr spends time describing the difficult start-up phase before and after the charter schools opened. You can feel how slow and seemingly hopeless the circumstances were. Yet, because we can see the fruits of plowing through the difficulty, we get the benefit (without the interminable wait) of hindsight and the encouragement that we too can prevail if we want something as badly as some of those parents wanted a good education for their kids.
But just because we push doesn't mean we have to rush. Some of the biggest problems came when decisions were rushed -- hiring calls where no references were checked, teachers using an approach without training and therefore digging a deeper hole for themselves. There are numerous examples of haste makes waste here. It reminds us that even when we want to move things forward, we shouldn't push things.
Sometimes you need to reconsider options you earlier might have dismissed. The parents who lobbied so hard against the district schools later aligned themselves with the district when a new administration came in. Great lesson on how we shouldn't be afraid to go back, reassess, and perhaps move in a direction that was not ideal before. Our circumstances change, and we should always adjust for what's best now, even if that means doing something deemed less than ideal before.
Progress can take a while. Schorr spends time describing the difficult start-up phase before and after the charter schools opened. You can feel how slow and seemingly hopeless the circumstances were. Yet, because we can see the fruits of plowing through the difficulty, we get the benefit (without the interminable wait) of hindsight and the encouragement that we too can prevail if we want something as badly as some of those parents wanted a good education for their kids.
But just because we push doesn't mean we have to rush. Some of the biggest problems came when decisions were rushed -- hiring calls where no references were checked, teachers using an approach without training and therefore digging a deeper hole for themselves. There are numerous examples of haste makes waste here. It reminds us that even when we want to move things forward, we shouldn't push things.
Sometimes you need to reconsider options you earlier might have dismissed. The parents who lobbied so hard against the district schools later aligned themselves with the district when a new administration came in. Great lesson on how we shouldn't be afraid to go back, reassess, and perhaps move in a direction that was not ideal before. Our circumstances change, and we should always adjust for what's best now, even if that means doing something deemed less than ideal before.
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
